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I really quite liked Halo on the console. Some great gameplay with some friends round, they did a pretty darned good job. And then there came the PC port. Full of exactly the same moments, it was really heart-warming to see that Bungie and Microsoft had gone to all the effort to make the PC port fun and enjoyabSTOP RIGHT THERE. To begin with, it was late. So what, with good gameplay, its alright t... read more

Description:Halo: Combat Evolved is a first-person shooter with considerable driving elements and the first game in the popular Halo series.
Humanity is the midst of a long war against an alien alliance called the Covenant who have been wiping out colony after colony. You hero is Master Chief, who is given no name beyond his rank in the game itself. He is stationed on the Pillar of Autumn, a ship which, per protocol make a jump in a random direction to retreat to avoid revealing the location of Earth. They find themselves at the titular Halo, a planet-sized ring of mysterious origin and function with the Covenant on their heels. Master CHalo: Combat Evolved is a first-person shooter with considerable driving elements and the first game in the popular Halo series.

Humanity is the midst of a long war against an alien alliance called the Covenant who have been wiping out colony after colony. You hero is Master Chief, who is given no name beyond his rank in the game itself. He is stationed on the Pillar of Autumn, a ship which, per protocol make a jump in a random direction to retreat to avoid revealing the location of Earth. They find themselves at the titular Halo, a planet-sized ring of mysterious origin and function with the Covenant on their heels. Master Chief must repel the Covenant assault and discover the secrets of Halo with the assistance of the female AI Cortana who lives in his suit and gives missions.

Features include friendly NPCs who fight alongside the Chief, squad-based AI where enemies groups work together to flank you under the direction of a leader unit and can be demoralized by his death. They also use cover, set ambushes, etc.

Only two weapons may be carried at a time: one active and one on back-up. There are five human weapons and three Covenant with distinct art styles for the two groups. Human weapons look basically like real guns and fire projectiles. Covenant are sleek and purple and fire energy. For the most part, weapons are not just left around the environment and must be procured from fallen enemies though there are supply points.

Your life is armor and health as in most games of the genre, however, rather than armor being an item than is picked up, it is a force field which quickly recharges itself after several seconds without taking damage, which emphasizes finding cover.

One of most significant features is vehicles. You can drive a variety of vehicles in both single player and multiplayer, some of which have additional seats for passengers or gunners which can be used by AI characters. Vehicles also come in distinct human and Covenant varieties with their design philosophies. Human vehicles roll around the ground on wheels and covenant vehicles hover or fly.

Halo also has a significant multiplayer component with basic deathmatch (called slayer here), capture the flag with the unusual addition that the flag takes your weapon spot while you are holding it, so shooting your way in and out of the base on your own is not an option, territories, and some options unique tot he game, such as oddball, where you must hold onto a skull for the longest time, race where you score points by getting to checkpoints and juggernaut, where one super-powered player must get points by killing the others and the other players try to kill him to steal his powers. There is also a game editor which allows you to set custom rules for all the basic game types. All the playable weapons and vehicles from the campaign mode are available in the multiplayer maps with the ability for members of the same team to share the game's distinctive Warthog vehicle, which is essentially a small truck with a mounted gun on the back.The story is presented through the instruction manual, written events listed way narrative full play and the dialogues between the characters and scenes that detail in the plot and in which the player can not control the character. Halo starts when the Pillar of Autumn exits hyperspace and runs into a mysterious space station in a ring called "Halo" by antagonists game, Covenant.24 A Covenant fleet suddenly attacks the ship, damaging it severely. Captain Jacob Keyes initiates then the "Cole Protocol", 25 a procedure designed to prevent the Covenant obtain information on the location of Earth. While Keyes prepares to land the ship on Halo, the Master Chief and Cortana, along with a group of sailors, fled through an "escape pod", which crashes into the surface of the ring; Cortana and the Chief are the only ones to survive the impact of the capsule.
Moreover, Keyes survives the Autumn's crash landing, but is captured by the Covenant.26 In the second and third levels of the game, the Chief and Cortana gather human survivors and some rescue Keyes, who is imprisoned in the ship Truth and Reconciliation Covenant. After being rescued, Keyes orders Chief to defeat the Covenant and reaches Halo command center, in order to discover their propósito.27 Subsequently, the Chief and Cortana reach a "map room"-that is, Where is located a hologram that shows the entire structure, known as the "Silent Cartographer"-although it is also known as the "Library" - that leads to the room control.28 Once there, Cortana accesses systems and discover something important, so Chief sends to find Keyes, while she stays in that sitio.29 When looking at his admiral, the Chief discovers that the Covenant have accidentally released the Flood, an alien race spread of parasites capable of defeating and infect other sentient life forms. Keyes falls victim to the Flood while looking for some weapons. The release of the Flood makes 343 Guilty Spark to recruit the Master Chief to retrieve the Index, a device that will activate Halo, thus preventing the Flood from spreading beyond the structure.
Once the Chief retrieves and begins to use Index, Cortana re-appears on the scene to warn you about the activation of Halo. She has discovered that Halo's defense system is a weapon designed to kill all living forms in the galaxy, which the Flood need to expandirse.30 Once you know this information, 343 Guilty Spark mentions that, technically, the installation only has a maximum radius of twenty-five thousand light years, although this would trigger a similar mechanism in other secondary facilities, thereby effectively exterminate all life in the galaxia.31
While fighting the Flood, the Covenant, and Guilty Spark's Sentinels, the Master Chief and Cortana attempt to destroy Halo before 343 Guilty Spark activates it. Cortana then discovers that the only way to destroy the planet is through self-destruction of the Pillar of Autumn.32 however, requires consent of Captain Keyes to order the destruction of the time are to nave.33 Keyes, realize that it has been infected and transformed into a Flood. The Chief retrieves Keyes' neural implants directly from his brain, and Cortana activates the Autumn's self-destruct sequence. However, 343 Guilty Spark reappears and deactivates the countdown, discovering in the process the historical record humanidad.34 However, in the end, the Master Chief manually activated casting fusion reactors Pillar of Autumn, and rapidly escapes together with the destruction Cortana Halo through a Lonsword. After the end credits, you can see 343 Guilty Spark floating in space, the story continues in Halo 2... (more)(less)